Is there an import adapter available for the Dreamcast? [Archive]

Kitsune Sniper

04-19-2007, 11:21 AM

Can't you get an Action Replay or Gameshark or whatever disc and use that? I remember they were supposed to help you play imports too.

Also, if you have a CD-R drive, you can download a boot disk image, burn it to CD, and use that to start your game. It doesn't always work, but it's free.

kaedesdisciple

04-19-2007, 11:25 AM

When I had a DC, I just used a Utopia boot disc that I burned from an ISO I found online in like 5 minutes.

XxHennersXx

04-19-2007, 02:13 PM

theres utopia you can download, there's dcrc that you can download, you can use a gameshark,or DC-X

Oobgarm

04-19-2007, 02:17 PM

Doesn't the DC have to be manufactured before a certain date to read CDRs? I thought I read that somewhere.

XxHennersXx

04-19-2007, 02:29 PM

Doesn't the DC have to be manufactured before a certain date to read CDRs? I thought I read that somewhere.

yes. which is why if your dc doesn't read CD-R's, you can just use a gameshark or DC-X

InsaneDavid

04-19-2007, 06:17 PM

Doesn't the DC have to be manufactured before a certain date to read CDRs? I thought I read that somewhere.

yes. which is why if your dc doesn't read CD-R's, you can just use a gameshark or DC-X

No, this is the biggest subject of Dreamcast misinformation. All Dreamcast systems that you'll ever see have MIL-CD support. There are a handful of Dreamcast consoles that were released to a very small Asian market share that have not been confirmed as booting CD-R's - but you'll never come across one of those. I've taken out brand new, factory sealed, end of production Dreamcasts to confirm this and they load CD-R data with no problem what so ever. Heck, one of these is the system I did my NESterDC compatability databasing with.

omnedon

04-19-2007, 07:39 PM

The DC can also be chipped, to boot import games directly, making a completely universal DreamCast, with no disc swapping.

Poofta!

04-19-2007, 07:43 PM

so david, youre saying all us dreamcasts read cdrs? i couldve sworn i had one that didnt, althoug hte two i have now both run cdrs. one is a sega sports model teh other is regular.

InsaneDavid

04-19-2007, 08:45 PM

so david, youre saying all us dreamcasts read cdrs? i couldve sworn i had one that didnt, althoug hte two i have now both run cdrs. one is a sega sports model teh other is regular.

Yes I am, with the exception I noted in my previous post. Every instance of a Dreamcast not reading a CD-R I've bared witness to was either due to defective hardware or bad burns using low grade CD media. Most of the time it's due to the later - no matter how many times I say it one can't expect to get consistant results out of penny-a-pound Memorex CD-R's burned at 40x.

Manufacture date being the basis for MIL-CD support is almost as bad a Dreamcast rumor as the "Sega stuffed the last Dreamcast console with $10,000" BS that someone was ranting about when I was on the retail side of the industry.

MarioMania

04-19-2007, 08:59 PM

So your saying my black dreamcast could read CD-R's

Sweater Fish Deluxe

04-19-2007, 09:25 PM

If, by "black Dreamcasts," you mean Sega Sports Dreamcasts, then yes. If by "black Dreamcasts," you mean LE R7 Dreamcasts, then yes. If for some reason by "black Dreamcasts," you mean the pink Sakura Taisen LE Dreamcast, then no that one won't work. Aside from those, there's a very small number of regular white Dreamcasts that won't work with CDRs either, but it's a small number like David said, there's very little chance that you'll come across one (I suppose the should be listed separately on the DP Dreamcats list and if they were, I'd say they're at least R7...not to be confused with the black LE Dreamcasts I mentioned above which were sold as "R7" Dreamcasts).

I also agree with David that, this is one of the most annoying rumors concerning Dreamcasts. Because it just sticks like dirt, no matter how much people try to set the record straight, there's still this illusion that Drreamcasts manufactured or sold or looked at after October 2000 won't play CDRs. It's not true.

Also, if you want to download a free Dreamcast bootdisc, the Action Replay CDX Demo is a better choice than the Utopia disc. Get it here:

http://dreamcast.dcemu.co.uk/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,8

Personally, I like DCHakker even better since you can do so much more with (like booting stuff from multisession CDRs), but it is more complicated to use, especially for booting imports. The PAR Demo is easier.

...word is bondage...

ProgrammingAce

04-19-2007, 10:14 PM

The irony of this is that i recall Sega themselves saying that you can boot CD-R's off of all dreamcast when they were telling people to import Shenmue II

MarioMania

04-19-2007, 10:19 PM

The Sega Sports Model..I like the Color Black, I don't call it sega sport

XxHennersXx

04-19-2007, 10:37 PM

No, this is the biggest subject of Dreamcast misinformation. All Dreamcast systems that you'll ever see have MIL-CD support. There are a handful of Dreamcast consoles that were released to a very small Asian market share that have not been confirmed as booting CD-R's - but you'll never come across one of those. I've taken out brand new, factory sealed, end of production Dreamcasts to confirm this and they load CD-R data with no problem what so ever. Heck, one of these is the system I did my NESterDC compatability databasing with.

thanks for that, I never tested it myself. All the dreamcasts I've come into using (mine, friends, work, etc) all boot CD-R's but they were all before that end of the production date too. But i'll keep that in mind. thanks!

segagamer

04-20-2007, 01:23 PM

Utopia is very unreliable; better off with Gameshark or DC-X (which I use personally). Not sure if anyone out there still offers the chip-mod on the DC, though.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

04-20-2007, 01:40 PM

I think NCS still offers the service, I'm not sure how much tey charge though and I don't think you'd have any trouble finding someone on these forums or one of the better Dreamcast-specific forums that would do the job for you. The modchip only requires four solderpoints, so it's not very complicated to do. At least, i don't think it is, I haven't done one myself because I'm too cheap to pay for anything if the swapdiscs are free even though a modchip would be a lot nicer.

...word is bondage...

XxHennersXx

04-20-2007, 11:02 PM

CosmicMonkey

04-21-2007, 12:33 AM

Don't bother with a mod chip. Use Dreamcast Region Changer 1.5

Check the Tech forum. There's a thread in there about it with all the info

Sweater Fish Deluxe

04-21-2007, 03:00 PM

they want 40 bucks for it.
Yikes, that's a lot. even though I assume it includes the return since that's standard for NCS. You could get it done much cheaper. The modchips themselves were only like $10-12 last time I noticed.

Don't bother with a mod chip. Use Dreamcast Region Changer 1.5

Check the Tech forum. There's a thread in there about it with all the info
Hm, that's pretty cool, I've never heard of this before.

However, I don't see how it's better than a modchip. If you're going to open up your DC and take a hot soldering iron to it, you might as well fully mod the system and not have to worry about swap discs or region changer discs are anything. In fact, unless you know you're going to play Japanese and only Japanese (or PAL and only PAL or North American and only North American) games on your Dreamcast for a certain period of time, this sounds even more complicated than just using a swap disc to boot your imports.

Still interesting, though.

...word is bondage...

XxHennersXx

04-21-2007, 09:24 PM

Yikes, that's a lot. even though I assume it includes the return since that's standard for NCS. You could get it done much cheaper. The modchips themselves were only like $10-12 last time I noticed.

Hm, that's pretty cool, I've never heard of this before.

However, I don't see how it's better than a modchip. If you're going to open up your DC and take a hot soldering iron to it, you might as well fully mod the system and not have to worry about swap discs or region changer discs are anything. In fact, unless you know you're going to play Japanese and only Japanese (or PAL and only PAL or North American and only North American) games on your Dreamcast for a certain period of time, this sounds even more complicated than just using a swap disc to boot your imports.

Still interesting, though.

...word is bondage...

Yeah I would just put a modchip in. PUt the disc in and play...I hate swap discs. Which is why i installed the region switch on my gamecube instead of using the freeloader.

kedawa

04-23-2007, 02:13 AM

I've encountered a Dreamcast console that won't boot CD-Rs, but I always suspected it was the result of an inferior GD-ROM drive. I've also come across some that are very picky about CD-Rs, but will play some of them.
My kiosk model won't boot anything but originals now, but the first day I had it, I played a pirate 3rd Strike disc on it for a few hours. I've never tried an import disc in it, so I have no idea if kiosk units are region free or not.
Dreamcasts are just flaky in general. There are mint retail games, like Ecco, that don't work in any of my systems.

MarioMania

05-18-2007, 07:24 PM

I downloaded the File "Cdxdemo.cdi" how do I copy it on a CD-R. Do I drag & drop it on D:/, Just let everyone know I never done this before

j_factor

05-19-2007, 04:03 AM

What, exactly, does "MIL-CD" mean? I seem to only hear that term in conversations about Dreamcast.

InsaneDavid

05-19-2007, 04:11 AM

What, exactly, does "MIL-CD" mean? I seem to only hear that term in conversations about Dreamcast.

Google is your friend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil-CD). Basically it was an extended CD format that Sega developed for the Dreamcast. Since audio CD's didn't have region lock / copy protection there were no barriers to hold back running things through these channels. MIL-CD support became exploited as a backdoor to step around the Dreamcast's lockouts.

Thrillo

05-19-2007, 06:52 AM

Hmmm...my friend's Dreamcast wouldn't boot CDRs; that was back around '02. It wasn't due to a bad burn because the games would work fine on mine, and I highly doubt it was bad media because I usually used only the best media (which around that time was Fujifilm and Imation CDRs). I tried like mad to get it to boot anything burned: I tried different CDR brands and burning methods, and it refused every time...

And another thing; my friend has an American DC and he bought a Japanese game which was in good condition. We tried using various boot disks (which worked fine for me to play emulators) to play it, but it refused to boot every time. We ended up having to download and burn the game to play it :/

MarioMania

05-19-2007, 02:26 PM

I'm just asking about the file "Cdxdemo.cdi" I don't want to waste another CD-R

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-19-2007, 03:57 PM

.CDI is a pre-compiled disc image format similar to BIN/CUE, but specific to the DiscJuggler burning software, so use DiscJuggler (available as a free demo) to burn a CD from the image. Alcohol 120% will also work. Or you can convert it to Nero's .NRG format using a program called CDI2Nero. Don't just burn the file to a CD-R as if you were making an archive CD or something.

Thrillo, when you say "it refused to boot every time" do you mean the boot discs themselves didn't boot up or that the import game wouldn't boot after you swapped it in?

...word is bondage...

MarioMania

05-19-2007, 04:28 PM

Easy Creator 5 Pro won't do the job

Captain Wrong

05-19-2007, 08:45 PM

Easy Creator 5 Pro won't do the job

.CDI is a pre-compiled disc image format similar to BIN/CUE, but specific to the DiscJuggler burning software, so use DiscJuggler (available as a free demo) to burn a CD from the image.

Also, google is your friend. As always...

gepeto

05-20-2007, 12:19 AM

Does anyone know how the dreamcast was cracked to enable cdr's to be booted straight from the disc and the psx was never straight boot without the chip? This has been bugging me for years.

MarioMania

05-20-2007, 12:19 AM

I have a burning software already...I have Easy Creator 5, you mean it won't work

gepeto

05-20-2007, 07:25 AM

I have a burning software already...I have Easy Creator 5, you mean it won't work

You need the disc juggler program for the dreamcast.

Sweater Fish Deluxe

05-20-2007, 04:46 PM

Does anyone know how the dreamcast was cracked to enable cdr's to be booted straight from the disc and the psx was never straight boot without the chip? This has been bugging me for years.
It just seems like it was a design mistake on Sega's part. Apparently Sega just didn't think of putting any kind of copy protection into the mil-CD format. It was obviously thought of as a throwaway (only about 10 official mil-CD discs were ever released and those were all just demos or music video type things) and there must have been a lack of communication between the people working on it and the people working on the GD-ROM format, so no one even seems to have thought about whether it would be possible to exploit the mil-CD format to pirate GD-ROM games. Sega was probably just so proud of themselves for coming up with the GD-ROM thing that they didn't even give piracy a second thought during the development of the Dreamcast. That's my impression anyway.

...word is bondage...

Captain Wrong

05-20-2007, 08:37 PM

I have a burning software already...I have Easy Creator 5, you mean it won't work

.CDI is a pre-compiled disc image format similar to BIN/CUE, but specific to the DiscJuggler burning software, so use DiscJuggler (available as a free demo) to burn a CD from the image.

I don't know how much clearer one could be than that. And you could have done a simple Google search for cdi file and found that out.

gloogun

12-23-2007, 03:50 AM

I've got a non MIL-CD DC with me right here. Purchased in the US about 3 years ago, I think it was refurbished. Manufacture date on the label is December 2000. I've gone through a stack of CDRs trying to burn various bootdisks, and every single one of them goes straight to the music player. Not one works. I've tried Utopia, ActionReplay and CodeBreaker. At first I thought it was lesser quality media, but I've tried Memorex, TDK and Sony CDRs and none work.

I just want to play a legitimately purchased (retail copy) import of Ikaruka that I picked up on ebay last week.

ProgrammingAce

12-23-2007, 05:30 AM

Does anyone know how the dreamcast was cracked to enable cdr's to be booted straight from the disc and the psx was never straight boot without the chip? This has been bugging me for years.

That's actually not true, but i guess it doesn't do me much good to say that the method to burn the discs is a secret... Same thing with the saturn really, even though i exposed the method on my site a while back. Now that i think about it, a method was worked out for self booting PS2 discs too but i don't think anyone ever put it to use.

There's pretty good evidence that Sega leaked the Mil-CD info to the Bleamcast people. Sega desperately wanted Bleamcast working so people would choose the Dreamcast over the PS1. There were actually System Disc 2's assigned to the Bleamcast creators. Because of the possible legal ramifications, Sega didn't want their support for the Bleamcast project to be known, so they gave them the info for the Mil-CD hole.

At E3 2000, Bleamcast had working self booting CD-R's at their booth. A few days later, the Utopia disc hit Usenet. It's not a coincidence, although all parties officially deny it, the Bleamcast folks leaked the Mil-CD info either intentionally or accidentally.

Whether people want to admit it or not, the dreamcast died due to piracy. And it's likely Sega leaked the details themselves...

It's actually an amazing story, i've written about it before but i should probably do it again. It's amazing what info i'll toss into the end of a year old thread...

InsaneDavid

12-23-2007, 06:25 AM

I've got a non MIL-CD DC with me right here. Purchased in the US about 3 years ago, I think it was refurbished.

= defective. Either that or you're not burning your compilations correctly.

gloogun

12-23-2007, 01:32 PM

= defective. Either that or you're not burning your compilations correctly.

Well it plays Crazy Taxi, and all other US retail disks, just fine.

And I know what I'm doing. I've used DiscJuggler and Nero hundreds of times in the past, so I can't buy your second explanation.

Is is possible that you're wrong, and that the infamous North American non MIL-CD DCs actually do exist? Would you like to buy one of this rare breed?

j_factor

12-23-2007, 01:36 PM

I think GOAT was offering a reward if anyone found a non-Mil-CD-compatible Dreamcast.

InsaneDavid

12-23-2007, 05:43 PM

Well it plays Crazy Taxi, and all other US retail disks, just fine.

And I know what I'm doing. I've used DiscJuggler and Nero hundreds of times in the past, so I can't buy your second explanation.

Is is possible that you're wrong, and that the infamous North American non MIL-CD DCs actually do exist? Would you like to buy one of this rare breed?

Oh yeah, please sell it to me - please! After all, I know nothing about Dreamcast emulation or technical things when it comes to video game consoles. ROFL

I've had US DC's that would play all retail games fine but when it came to a CD-R were shakey as shit - because they've been worn out and abused. Also some compilations would load much easier than ones that have a hefty load sequence such as DOOM DC. Changing the drive assembly fixed the problem, so there was nothing wrong with the board. If you know what you're doing and one of your burns works on another Dreamcast, then you'd have some say in the matter. Since you haven't mentioned that at all, without proper testing it can't be dismissed as a unique system.

Welcome to DP.